Editorial
Do something about Dhaka traffic, please!
Life has become unbearable
WE address our plea to the Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and his deputy commissioners in charge of traffic of the capital.
Mobility has become extremely difficult with traffic snarl-ups becoming an agonizingly regular feature in the daily life of Dhaka commuters. Getting about within the city in any form of transport has become a nightmare. Life has become severely restrained because of the serious bottlenecks that occur on a regular basis in the city particularly at peak hours. By some accounts the daily loss incurred due to traffic jam runs into millions.
The Dhaka metropolitan police have been experimenting from time to time with the traffic system by introducing newer methods of traffic flow, but regrettably, all exercises to ease traffic movement and enhance the flow have failed miserably. In fact, if anything, every time new rules were introduced, the condition on the city roads had gotten worse. Merely making a particular road no go area or doing away with the system of traffic police controlling traffic movements manually may at best be a short term palliative not a long term solution.
One of the reasons why experiments have not worked is because the drives were not only occasional, they were also conducted rather halfheartedly and without addressing the structural deficiencies including lack of adequate parking space.
A case in point is the much vaunted 'lane' system which is not a new concept, and which in any organised society drivers automatically follow. But for us it was new! And look at what has come of it now? It is back to the old ways. No one, including the traffic police, seems to be bothered about anyone following the lane system. And filing cases against the offenders, which seems to be the major preoccupation of the traffic police, is not necessarily the best way to motivate compliance of rules.
We understand that there are some inherent constraints associated with the capital's roads. And there are more new vehicles coming on the roads every month than the roads can absorb, that are adding to the clog. That is why something quick and innovative must be done, and both medium and short-term measures should be formulated. Certainly, occasional drives to improve the congestion will not do.
However, at the end of the day, whatever strategy is evolved, much of the success will depend on the persons entrusted to implement the system, the traffic police. Regrettably, their level of competence, one has to admit, needs improvement.
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